AIPAC’s Sketchy Endorsement of Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi Leaves More Troubling Questions Than Answers

Written by Linda Prestia

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a bipartisan, pro-Israel political action lobbying committee, has been endorsing members of Congress for years in a bid to enact specific policies that create a strong, enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with Israel, America’s biggest ally and the only democracy in the Middle East.

AIPAC essentially raises millions of dollars by Jewish and Christian people and groups across the country, who want to see Israel protected.

However, AIPAC has been the subject of scrutiny for years by both sides of the political aisle for various reasons, including negatively by former U.S. President Barack H. Obama.

In his 2020 memoir, Obama detailed the threat AIPAC presents to Israel’s critics, who risked “being tagged as ‘anti-Israel’ (and possibly anti-Semitic) and confronted with a well-funded opponent in the next election”, he wrote.

Obama’s admonishment of AIPAC in his book was of no surprise if you review the eight years in office he spent appeasing Iran, a terrorist breeding state that continues to this day to chant death to America and Israel.

The Iran nuclear deal in 2013 by the Obama-Biden Administration, which gave $150 billion, including $1.8 billion cash to Iran, garnered wide criticism among several members of Congress, because it abandoned a strength and accountability approach with Iran.

Several members of the U.S. House, on both sides of the aisle at the time, publicly pushed back on the administration’s pro-Iran policies of appeasement and cash payoffs.

Not surprisingly, the Democrat Congressional delegation from Obama’s home state of Illinois in 2013 backed the horrid deal that was described at the time by Ed Royce, former California Congressman who chaired the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, as “terrible and reckless” policy that sent a state sponsor of terror pallets of untraceable cash and put bigger targets on Americans.

Even U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) at the time said that the Obama-Biden administration’s policy of appeasement led Iran to illegally seize more American hostages.

Obama and Biden knew that Iran had a powerful army, air force, navy and advanced weapons systems that include ballistic missiles, as well as a growing space program. Obama and Biden knew that Iran also controlled several proxy terrorist organizations, responsible for murdering hundreds of thousands of people.

After that bad deal, Iran unleased terror in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq. For these reasons alone, many opposition opinions publicly made by elected officials in DC criticized the Obama-Biden Administration Iran deal that created a long-term national security risk for the U.S and Israel.

Americans may realize now the depth of the shady deal, understanding that the Obama-Biden Administration took the ransom money from the taxpayers’ “Judgment Fund” that is provided by the Treasury with dismal transparency. Obama and Biden’s deal used the fund specifically to bypass Congress to get the cash to Iran.

Fast forward to the Biden-Harris Administration’s shady prisoner swap with Iran in a new deal brokered in September 2023 that gave Tehran access to $6 billion, which the Administration claimed was “its own oil revenue.” The Administration said that they were monitoring spending in the account and that the money could only be used for humanitarian purposes that involve food and medicine for people.

Numerous members of Congress again warned the Administration’s actions would only encourage more hostage taking by Iranians. Many detractors argued too that the money was fungible and that if the funds in that account were spent on humanitarian needs, this would allow Iran to spend more money on Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels and other proxy terror groups that hate Israel and America.

Several weeks later, we saw the horrifying October 7th terror attacks on civilians in Israel unfold by the Palestinian Hamas terrorist militant group, and proxies of Hezbollah-all funded by Iran.

AIPAC has generated millions of dollars in donations since the large-scale Hamas attack against more than 1,400 Israeli, American and Arab civilians, that they say, according to their own website, was “backed by Iran.”

AIPAC further indicates on its website addressing supporters, “Urge your members of Congress to continue speaking out in support of our ally Israel, and to support President Biden’s supplemental funding request to ensure Israel has the resources to protect its citizens.”

What many Jewish donors of AIPAC should realize is the massive hypocrisy by the organization endorsing essentially intellectually dishonest and frankly anti-Israel Democrat incumbents who are stalwart defenders of the current Iran-appeasing Democrat Administration.

Jewish donors to AIPAC must understand and acknowledge the counter-productive nature of the Biden-Harris administration and their dance with the Democrats in Congress who capitulate to the far left radical arm of their Hamas supporting party, who spread the terrorist generated propaganda and disinformation. We do not see the current Biden administration push back against any of the Hamas propaganda spreading squad members, out of fear of enraging their left wind radical extremist supporters.

AIPAC’s recent endorsements of several of these spineless incumbent Democrats seeking re-election, is nothing more than confirmation of lost credibility in achieving its mission, which is to keep Israel secure and safe.

AIPAC has essentially been backing and endorsing numerous democrats in Congress who have outwardly supported appeasing Iran, who outwardly declares its top mission is to eradicate Israel, our biggest ally in the Middle East.

One notable recent endorsement by AIPAC included that of Illinois 8^th Congressional District Democrat U.S. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Harvard graduate and former campaign advisor to Barrack Obama.

Krishnamoorthi noticeably stayed mum in the weeks and months after the horrific attacks when left wing Hamas sympathizing students at his alma mater were targeting Jewish students on campus with their anti-Semitic rants and hateful protests. The anti-Semitic actions by left wing students at Harvard, and lack of action by the heads of the university to stop the hate against Jewish students, lead to big donors, including Citadel owner and billionaire Ken Griffin, to pull funding since then.

We reached out to AIPAC requesting via-email their answer as to why their committee gave Krishnamoorthi their endorsement, instead of a Conservative Jewish Candidate running for the 8^th District, Republican Mark Rice, and AIPAC failed to answer that question.

What is most ironic is AIPAC recently issued a meme on social media asking “Do You Support A Two-State Solution? Hamas Doesn’t.” AIPAC reiterates their position on the meme indicating that Hamas seeks to destroy Israel and, in its words, liberate all Palestine through Jihad.

This AIPAC meme is rather contrary to their recent endorsement of Rep. Krishnamoorthi, who issued a joint press release in January 2024 declaring that he supports a two-state solution.

Rep Krishnamoorthi sent a joint letter with fellow Democrat U.S. Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut expressing support for a two-state solution as the only viable path for peace between Israel and Palestine. Here is the letter  two-state-solution-final_0.pdf (house.gov)

The Krishnamoorthi-Hines letter curiously crafted only three months after the deadly October 7 attack, and while Hamas continues to hold over a hundred hostages, including one hostage who is friends with Mark Rice, who is Krishnamoorthi’s Jewish opponent in the 8^th congressional district race.

While Israel has offered a cease fire to get the terrorist group to release the hostages and surrender, the terror group refuses to comply, which is why Israel continues military efforts to destroy Hamas tunnels and try to eradicate all of the evil regime’s members.

“My friend Shlomi is still being held by Hamas terrorists and I don’t see Raja Krishnamoorthi crafting letters demanding my friend’s release, along with the other innocent hostages we have not heard from since the horrific attack on October 7,” said Rice, when we asked him what he thought about Krishnamoorthi’s letter.

In an email letter AIPAC sent to supporters dated March 20, 2024, Martin (Marty) L. Ritter, Regional Political Director for AIPAC Midwest, wrote,

“All 17 AIPAC-endorsed candidates, eight Democrats and nine Republicans, advanced in key primaries in Illinois and Ohio, an important step forward in ensuring that Congress remains pro-Israel in 2025.”

Ritter linked the letter to the Asian Pacific American Caucus featuring 20 democrats, including U.S. Representatives Eric Swalwell, Adam Schiff, and Raja Krishnamoorthi.

Ritter and his AIPAC cohorts backing sketchy anti-Israel Democrats from the mid-west shows lack of full discernment of candidates, which may be one of the reasons why AIPAC’s credibility for its mission is waning.

Ritter and his committee members either have no ability to do important research on the candidates that AIPAC endorses, or they are far-left radical infiltrators aiming to undermine AIPAC’s mission.

A recent picture of Ritter surfaced on social media with far left radical progressive Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who allowed a resolution to pass by the Chicago City Council that even fellow Jewish Governor JB Pritzker pushed back on.

“I don’t think that that resolution will have any actionable impact on foreign policy of the U.S. or on the hostilities taking place in the Middle East,” Pritzker said in a press conference Feb 1 2024. His statement followed a divided city council that approved a non-binding resolution calling for an end to the war between Israel and Hamas, with Mayor Brandon Johnson casting a tie-breaking vote.

Pritzker said that he was disappointed that, “no consideration was given to the women who were raped by Hamas fighters who crossed over into Israel, kidnapped people, that the deaths were caused by those terrorists were not acknowledged.”

“The City Council, if they’re going to talk about the challenges of war in the Middle East, you’ve got to make sure that you include all the perspectives. They did not do that,” said Pritzker.

Although JB Pritzker publicly pushed back on the Chicago City Council resolution, not a peep of push back by AIPAC endorsed and funded Democrat Rep. Krishnamoorthi.

If you examine Rep. Krishnamoorthi’s voting positions, they align more with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), whom also endorsed him. His support of the recent Biden-Harris administration’s bad Iran deal that funded and aided Israel’s enemy is further evidence of his anti-Israel positions in the past, as well as his vote NO for aid to Israel.

So the question remains as to why would AIPAC continue to endorse Rep. Krishnamoorthi knowing he is taking money from Hamas supporters that back CAIR, an organization that also has endorsed radical anti-Semitic democrat squad member U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

Rep. Krishnamoorthi refused to censure Rep. Tlaib for her anti-Semitic rhetoric earlier this year.

More troubling is that Rep. Krishnamoorthi is on the record for endorsing CAIR too, even though the FBI has dubbed it a terrorist backed organization.

“Through its efforts, CAIR-Chicago has consistently shown its commitment to defending the rights of Muslim Americans,” said Raja Krishnamoorthi in a quote carried by CAIR on their website.

Right after the horrific Hamas attacks against Israelis on October 7, the co-founder and executive Director of CAIR Nihaw Awad publicly said,

“And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their own land, which they were not allowed to walk in.

And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel, as an occupying power, does not have that right to self-defense. Gaza became the liberation source, the inspiration for people. The Gazans were victorious.”

After Nihaw Awad made this atrocious pro-terror rant, the White House had to quietly scrub their ties to CAIR, according to news reports in December 2023.

However, Raja Krishnamoorthi never pushed back on that CAIR co-founder’s public hateful rhetoric applauding the horrific Hamas attack of Israeli civilians.

As widely reported, CAIR was created by Omar Ahmad and Nihaw Awad, two members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Palestine Committee.”

According to internal records seized by the FBI, the Muslim Brotherhood established the committee to support Hamas “with what it needs of media, money, men and all of that.” CAIR’s Palestine Committee connections led the FBI to cut off outreach with the organization in 2008.

“CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-financing trial against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF),” said Richard Powers, the FBI Assistant Director at the time. He went on to add that the evidence in the trial demonstrated a relationship among CAIR, individual CAIR founders, and the Palestine Committee, which was all connected to Hamas. As a result of these revelations, the FBI publicly said that it does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner.

Omar Ahmad, the driving force within the Palestine Committee and CAIR’s co-founder, was outed by FBI Agent Lara Burns in 2008, who testified that he planned, convened and moderated an October 1993 Palestine Committee meeting in Philadelphia where members discussed ways to derail a U.S. led peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.

Given all this information on Rep. Krishnamoorthi’s loyalty and praise to anti-Israel organizations, individuals in Congress, actions by Chicago’s city council members that fan the lies and dishonest Hamas propaganda, his support of the Biden-Administration’s harmful policies that helped Iran fund terrorist groups to execute the October 7 attack on Israel, it is fair to question whether AIPAC is really an honest broker or even competent in its advocacy for promoting peace and security for Israel.

All AIPAC donors, Christians and Jews, before they write checks to AIPAC, should be asking this organization these questions to hold them accountable and perhaps should start carefully examining the voting records and support of Iran-appeasing policies by all the Democrat Congress Representatives that AIPAC has endorsed.